pandemic

On the next Let’s Talk New Mexico we’ll check in on the return to the office and we’d like to hear from you. Are you still working from home, or are you back at the workplace fulltime? How has work-life changed?

After more than four decades, the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe has closed its doors to the public after a yearslong struggle with funding and low attendance.

Since 2020 the state has allowed oil and gas producers to temporarily stop running pumps because the pandemic economy was particularly bad for business. But despite the rebound in oil prices, there are still more than 1,000 wells sitting idle.

Communities of color have long been underserved here in New Mexico––an issue only highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, a new initiative launched by the New Mexico Black Leadership Council looks to change this by connecting them more easily to essential services.

State health officials on August 4, 2022 said Monkeypox is a new public health emergency and that COVID cases remain high in a third of New Mexico counties thanks to the highly transmissible BA.5 variant. However the growth in case numbers has plateaued. Acting Health Secretary Dr. David Scrase and Deputy Health Secretary Dr. Laura Parajon both spoke about the diseases.

New Mexico now has 8 counties at the highest orange level, 3 less than last week, on the updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID community levels map. Still populous counties like Bernalillo and Sandoval are orange and the CDC and NMDOH recommend that anyone in orange counties wear N95 masks indoors in public settings. KUNM’s Jered Ebenreck provides this update.

As the second holiday weekend in two weeks arrives, New Mexicans face fresh challenges calculating COVID-19 risk. By CDC standards, New Mexico has a surge of cases higher than last summer, without a mask mandate, managed by an understaffed Department of Health that provides irregular updates as hospitalizations and deaths increase.

The Department of Health gives first COVID19 update in 3 months, announcing the departure of the State Epidemiologist and acknowledging a new surge of cases in NM. Acting Secretary of Health, Dr David Scrase emphasized the value of testing early and treating early.

This week on Let’s Talk New Mexico we’re talking Long COVID with several people who are survivors, as well as health care officials about what kinds of treatments are available and how doctors can learn to spot the symptoms in their patients.

The pandemic has challenged schools and universities in ways big and small. In medical schools, including at UNM, the anatomy labs are struggling with a lack of bodies for dissection.